KARACHI: The Sindh government on Thursday formed a committee to resolve various issues related to mega transport schemes, including the multi-million dollar BRT Red Line project, after contractors demanded heavy increase in the estimated cost, officials and sources privy to the projects told Dawn on Thursday.

The government is faced with a serious challenge of completing the BRT Red Line project amid fast-escalating cost of construction materials and depreciating value of Pak rupee, the sources said.

They said that the estimated cost of BRT Red Line had emerged as a fresh challenge for the authorities, who wanted to expedite the construction of the project on fast tracks to avoid delays in completion, which would increase its cost ‘by a significant margin’.

To review the progress made so far and fresh challenges, the officials said, Sindh Minister for Information, Transport and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon chaired a meeting with senior officials of the department and decided to form a committee, to be headed by the transport secretary.

Body formed to look into pricing issues with contractors and monitor work on the project

“The committee would review the daily progress of the project,” said a source citing the decisions taken at the meeting.

“And importantly, it would also look into pricing issues raised by different contractors. Since the project is funded by the Asian Development Bank, the committee will sit with the contractors and find a way out in the light of the terms and conditions defined by the international donor.”

He said that the government was frequently facing interruption in otherwise smooth construction of the project only because the contractors were not ready to continue their work on the agreed upon prices after recent hikes in their “cost of doing business”.

The transport minister, he said, had decided to fix the issues once and for all directing the committee members to come up with a final solution.

112.9 kilometres BRT projects

The Red Line is part of the project known as Karachi Breeze — a plan of some 112.9 kilometres long BRT projects with five dedicated lines. However, so far only two of the five lines — Green Line and Orange Line — could have been started.

With the total estimated cost of $493.5 million and co-financed by the ADB, AFD, GCF and AIIB, the 26-kilometre Red Line BRT would ferry people on dedicated tracks from Model Colony to the Numaish intersection via University Road.

Meanwhile, a statement issued after the meeting said that Mr Memon had further instructed the officials to take steps for ensuring that citizens did not face any inconvenience during the ongoing construction work on the project.

“Leave no stone unturned for resolving issues being faced in the Red Line BRT project as millions of people of Karachi would be benefited from the project,” the statement quoted the minister as saying during the meeting.

Transport Secretary Salim Rajput, CEO Trans Karachi Tufail Palijo, chairman of BOD Trans Karachi Suresh Lodhi, MD of Sindh Mass Transit Authority Kamal Dayo, Asian Development Bank representative Shaukat Ali Alvi, GM Trans Karachi Pir Sajjad, BRT Consultant Sir James, Sohail Abdi and others attended the meeting.

The meeting participants also discussed the progress of the construction work from the Tank Chowk to Safoora Chowrangi underpass being undertaken as a part of the BRT Red Line project.

“A committee was also formed at the meeting to monitor and review the progress of work on the Red Line BRT project on a daily basis,” it said.

Later, it said, the monitoring and review committee headed by the transport secretary, Salim Rajput, conducted physical inspection of the Red Line BRT project and reviewed the construction work and potential impediments.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2023